Betrayal Compendium: Everything You Need to Know About the League

Introduction

Betrayal is the current seasonal league, and one of the deepest and most complex to ever grace Path of Exile. The Immortal Syndicate has encroached onto Wraeclast’s sinister shores, and the unwary Exile who crosses their path without preparation will be chewed up and ground to bits.

The Betrayal league introduces a variety of new and unique mechanics, many of which form complex interlocking systems that can be manipulated for personal benefit. First and foremost, however, the player must be able to consistently emerge victorious when facing members of the Syndicate, who are hyper lethal and present in every zone you enter.

Overview of the Syndicate

The Immortal Syndicate is split into four divisions:

Transport

Research

Fortification

Intervention

The Syndicate members are assigned to one of the four divisions, although they can be moved by the player. There are 17 possible Syndicate members, which will be detailed later, although a maximum of 15 can be active participants in the organization at any given time. Syndicate members can be removed, should the player choose, and they will be replaced by one of the inactive members.

Each Syndicate member specializes in a different type of reward, and this reward shifts depending on what branch of the Syndicate they are currently assigned to. This will be discussed in greater detail later on in the guide.

Basic Syndicate Mechanics

The Syndicate have a few universal mechanical systems that govern their rewards, encounters, and power levels.

Rank

Syndicate members have a rank within the organization, denoted by stars on their portrait. There are four possible ranks, ranging from Unranked to Rank 3. Only Ranked members of the Syndicate can be assigned to a division within the organization, and will automatically be granted Rank 1 if assigned using any of the encounter options.

Increased rank has several effects on the Syndicate. Higher rank members grant far greater rewards, as well as intelligence on Syndicate safehouses or the Mastermind itself.

Intelligence

When interacting with the Syndicate, many options will allow the player to gather Intelligence. Gathering enough intel on a division will reveal their Safehouse location, which the player can then raid.

Intelligence must also be gathered from Safehouses to reveal the Syndicate Mastermind.

Relationships

Syndicate members have relationship levels within the organization that can be influenced by the player’s choices. There are three basic relationship levels a member of the Syndicate can have with another member:

Friendly/Allied

Neutral/No Relation

Hostile/Rivalry

The relationship level between Syndicate members influences the encounters the player has with the Syndicate, along with the options presented once a Syndicate encounter has been completed.

Safehouses

Each division will be headed by a member of the Syndicate. Once enough Intelligence has been gathered, all members assigned to that division will retreat to a Safehouse, which can be raided by the player. Portals to the Safehouse can be opened by speaking with Jun, or simply opening the Betrayal tab and clicking on the Safehouse button.

The Safehouse will be defended by the head of the division, along with any other members assigned to the branch. The loot provided after completing the Safehouse will largely be based off the division leader and their rank.

Immortal Syndicate Encounters

The Immortal Syndicate appears in most areas of Path of Exile, similar to previous league mechanics. There are, however, several key areas which are entirely free from Syndicate activity. Most notably, the Azurite Mine is entirely untainted by Syndicate presence and can be used as a haven, of sorts, to level in if the Syndicate are brutalizing your Exile.

A friendly NPC, Jun Ortoi, will always be present during Syndicate encounters, and can also be invited to your Hideout. Jun can be used to unveil the newly added Veiled items that are only dropped by Syndicate members, allowing you to choose from three potential crafts to add a new and unique affix to the item.

There are four main types of Syndicate encounters, matching the divisions of the organization itself. In all encounters, the Syndicate members present must be defeated for the player to achieve victory and earn any rewards. The four types of encounters are:

Transport: The Syndicate will attempt to move a payload between two portals on the map. The player must defeat the Syndicate members before the payload reaches the end of the path in order to receive any rewards. The time remaining is denoted by a bar near the bottom of the screen.

Research: Jun Ortoi will be standing outside the entrance to a Syndicate Laboratory, which the player can enter. A variety of monsters inside will be attempting to destroy “evidence”, and the player will fail the encounter if they succeed.

Fortification: Syndicate member(s) will be inside a fortress surrounded by healing totems, which has destroyable doors. Monsters will continuously spawn around the fortress, attempting to prevent the player from destroying the doors. The Syndicate members will periodically teleport out of the fortress to engage the player as well, but will return to the fortress to heal after taking enough damage or being kited too far away.

Intervention: One or more Syndicate members will emerge from a portal and aggressively engage the player. If the player runs too far, or tries to escape using mobility skills, they will simply step through a new portal to the player’s current location.

The Syndicate members assigned to each division match the encounter types. For example, if you have Janus Perandus assigned to Transport, he will not appear during a Fortification encounter.

Defeating a Syndicate Encounter

After you have emerged victorious against a Syndicate encounter, you may choose the fate of the Syndicate members that you defeated. The player is presented with two options, one of which is always Interrogate.

Interrogate

Interrogating a Syndicate member puts them in prison for the next three Syndicate encounters, allowing you to temporarily remove them from the Syndicate. It will also generate Intelligence for a given division every turn, and remove a rank from the Syndicate member in question upon release.

If the interrogated member is Rank 1, they will no longer be associated with their assigned division upon release, as they will be at “Rank 0”. Therefore, if the player wants to remove a Syndicate member from a certain branch but still benefit from the intelligence provided by an interrogation, this is a safe and reliable method to employ. Syndicate members that are Rank 2 or 3 will not lose association with their division, and simply lose one rank. Interrogating the head of a Safehouse will also cause them to lose their position as ranking officer, and they will be replaced by the next highest ranking member of the division.

Interrogating a Syndicate member will also destroy any items they currently have equipped.

Bargain

Bargaining can provide a wide variety of rewards, depending on the Syndicate member in question and their currently assigned division. The option to Bargain is typically only presented when a Syndicate member is alone, or is the last remaining member to be interacted with following an encounter. Here are some examples of Bargaining options:

Switch divisions with another member of the Syndicate

Leave the Immortal Syndicate

Remove all rivalries/hostile relationships within the Syndicate

Drop rewards based on their current branch (see rewards table below)

Gain Intelligence on a division of the Syndicate

Raise the rank of a member of the Syndicate

Remove all items from a Syndicate division

Create friendly relationships with another Syndicate member

Execute

Execute is an option that increases the rank of the Syndicate member by 1 point. The option to execute can occur under the following circumstances:

Two syndicate members are present; the player can execute one of them if they have a neutral or hostile relationship towards each other

Three syndicate members are present; the first one the player interacts with will always have the options to Interrogate or Execute

If the player executes a member of the Syndicate that is not currently assigned to a division, they will be granted +1 Rank and assigned to most recently encountered division. For example, if the last encounter the player completed was a Transportation encounter, the unassigned member will be promoted into that branch.

Betray

Betray is only an option when two Syndicate members are present and have a friendly relationship with each other. If the relationship is neutral or hostile, the Execute option will be presented instead. Betraying the other member of the Syndicate causes their relationship to become hostile.

Players can also occasionally remove a member of the Syndicate from the active roster using this option.

Immortal Syndicate Members and Rewards

There are 17 members in the Immortal Syndicate, and each of them provides different potential rewards. The rewards from Syndicate members also vary based on the division to which they are assigned.

Manipulating the Syndicate for Personal Gain

As it may or may not be clear from the table above, certain members of the Syndicate offer far more attractive rewards than others when correctly positioned. Setting up your Immortal Syndicate to provide maximum returns can greatly increase your flow of wealth during this league. Sulphite and Cartography Scarabs, for example, provide very consistent income. Map chests as well can contain hundreds of Chaos Orbs worth of maps. It is not quite clear which combinations yield the absolute best results, but we recommend always checking current prices and maneuvering your Syndicate Safehouse leaders to match. Here are some general recommendations:

It That Fled is excellent on Research to upgrade Chayula’s Breachstone(s) (generally best profit possible).

Gravicius on Intervention for Divination Scarabs. Can also be valuable on Transportation/Fortification, however, it is highly variable.

Cameria on Intervention for Sulphite Scarabs.

Hillock can be helpful early on to increase quality, especially for Unique Flasks and Weapons.

Rin is valuable on Intervention for the Cartography Scarabs.

Leo on Research can be incredibly valuable for crafting certain pieces, allowing you to use a free Exalted Orb on an item.

Vorici on Research can be excellent for applying white sockets to items without corrupting them.

These are only a few recommendations; there are nearly limitless permutations for your Syndicate and plenty of them are valuable. As a rule of thumb, Scarabs are generally very valuable regardless of type, although Sulphite, Divination, and Cartography Scarabs usually hold the best value of the bunch. Many of the rewards not recommended above still have the potential to provide incredible returns, however, they are generally highly variable. Our list aims to recommend setups that provide the best and most consistent profit for your Exile.

Syndicate Blocking

It is possible to set up your Syndicate in such a manner that you only have to deal with a single encounter type. For example, if you have a really stacked set up on Transportation, you could opt to farm Transportation encounters in perpetuity. The benefit of this is that you can make massive profits for your exile, and often several hundred Chaos Orbs per hour.

Once a branch of the Syndicate reaches 100% Intelligence and the Safehouse option has appeared, the members attached to the branch will no longer appear in Syndicate encounters. They have “retreated into the Safehouse” and will not engage the player until dealt with. The idea behind the blocking method is to get the three branches you do not want to farm to 100% Intelligence, then leave them in the Safehouse while you farm the targeted branch encounters.

It is advised to rank up the members of your targeted branch as much as possible, as the rewards from Rank 3 Syndicate members are much more desirable.

The Syndicate Mastermind

After interrogating enough Safehouse Leaders, the Syndicate Mastermind will be revealed, and become available to fight. So as not to spoil the surprise, see our separate Syndicate Mastermind guide for more information on how to defeat this epic boss!

About the Author

Furty has been playing Path of Exile since the release of the Onslaught League in 2013, and has a deep and diverse well of experience within the game. Equally comfortable playing on Hardcore, Softcore, and Solo-Self Found Leagues, Furty finished the Betrayal League at Rank 186 on the ladder playing Elemental Hit. You can follow him on Twitter, or check out his occasional streams on Twitch.